When I took this second grade position, I had many things on my to-do list. However, the first item on my list was classroom management ideas. Any teacher would agree that the most important skill in running a class is classroom management. There are so many strategies, but my go-to is Class Dojo! The Benefits
If you've been in a primary classroom recently, chances are you've seen a word wall. While I believe they are an essential part of an early primary classroom,
Hey y'all! Over the past couple of weeks I've had some questions from teachers about how I use Class Dojo in my classroom and utilizing my...
Learn a changing matter experiment you can easily do at school that is perfect for 2nd grade. This properties of matter ice cream in a bag science experiment is a delicious demonstration of temperature changes matter that students can eat at the end!
Is it too soon to be talking about ‘Back to School ideas’ already?
Number fact fluency is important to develop in first and second grade. Without automatic recall it's hard to move on to more complex skills.
Inspire your second writers with this list of journal ideas and 2nd grade writing prompts shared by one of our Journal Buddies readers!
Friday letters offer so many insights into your students and keep parents connected to your classroom. See how I teach students to manage them themselves.
Second Grade Stories • A Second Grade Teaching Blog
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
If you have been following our blog, you might have seen our post about our favorite teacher hack, earlier finisher packets! If you missed it, don’t worry, I will sum it up real quick for you. Essentially, despite teaching different grade, Emmy and I realized we were both having the same Issue. Kid
Massive list of classroom jobs for elementary students in preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or second grade - such great ideas for classroom jobs!
Do you teach your first and second-grade students to learn how to write a paragraph? In this post, I share ideas, lessons, and activities for students to learn how to write their own paragraphs in a structured way. Before I dive in, I wanted to let you know you can watch or listen to all […]
Kids love to be helpers, so give them some amazing classroom jobs for students that will build responsibility and make your life in the classroom easier.
FREEZE is the math movement game of every elementary teacher’s dreams! It combines academics, social skills, movement, AND fun into one amazing activity.
habitat science unit for first grade, second grade, or third grade
Ideas for teaching addition strategies in 1st grade to set students up for fact fluency success! Plus get 5 tips for making fact fluency fun!
I love using interactive lapbooks in the classroom. They are fun to create, engaging and can be used throughout the year to review skills taught. I finally completely my Lapbook Bundle and I am happy to share the lapbooks included with you. Whether you think your learners will enjoy creating all of the lapbooks, if you
Create a solid math foundation with these tips for teaching place value in 1st grade. Use these ideas to avoid place value mistakes!
We are on our 4th week of measurement in my class! PTL the rulers are put away this week because we've moved onto learning about area! After 3
Practice grade 2 math with FREE printable 2nd grade math worksheets. Turn second grade math worksheets into a FUN Mad minutes game!
If you've been in a primary classroom recently, chances are you've seen a word wall. While I believe they are an essential part of an early primary classroom,
Hello and welcome to the WEIRDEST SCHOOL YEAR OF YOUR CAREER. While last year ended with quite an unexpected twist, not something anyone could have predicted,
This Animal Report can be used for ANY animal. It is a great way to help elementary students research and write about animals. Students participate in
These first day of school tips and ideas for teachers are perfect for back to school! Grab your freebies for second grade today!
I have to admit. I love the classroom transformations that we've done this year so far. When my students walk into the classroom, their eyes light up! We had so much fun learning about the elements of fairy tales and it made it even more fun with a fairy tale classroom transformation! Transform Your Room!
Are you ready for the month of March? We are all geared up for some fun learning this month! Our March NO PREP packets are done and we are ready to go!
Lemon juice secret writing! Make DIY invisible ink and sen secret messages. Plus learn the science behind how these messages are made!
Spring No Prep Kindergarten 130+ Page Worksheet Book Here is our no prep Spring edition. It’s full of tons of different workpages and activities to practice basic concepts skills such as coun…
Just found out you're teaching second grade! Here's a quick start guide!
Use low-prep writing crafts to get students excited about writing and showcase everything they have learned.
I've been teaching gifted and high achieving students for the past 15 years. In that time, I've come to have a great understanding o...
Classroom teachers have a ton of daily tasks to guarantee that students are engaged and learning. It's a tough job, and a stressful one, too. Teachers wear out easily if their classrooms aren't well managed. Creating a classroom that runs itself while you teach in smaller groups is the best way to keep students engaged.
Guided math
Try these essential tips for how to run Math centers: Easy, simple, and effective organization ideas and resources for the K-2 classroom.
I love teaching a split-grade class. I know this may not be a popular opinion in teaching, but there it is. In reality, many of us teach split-grade
It's that time of year again! Open House season is here and we are busily working on projects to share with our parents on our big night. One of the big projects my students will be working on is their Animal Diorama and Research Report. This was something I did for the first time last year, and it was a HIT! I got this idea after my son had to make a diorama for his first grade class last year. We had so much fun creating his animal diorama as a family project, that I decided it was something I had to do with my class too! I brought the idea up to my second grade team, and they were all very excited about it... so we went for it! We decided to give the assignment the week before STAR testing. Since we wouldn't be giving homework during the two weeks of testing, that would give students more time to research, gather materials, and work on their projects. Students had about three weeks to complete their projects. We decided to have the students bring in their completed dioramas the day before Open House. We were thrilled with the results! Here are a few student samples from last year: Along with this diorama project, our students will also be completing an Animal Research Report poster with information and illustrations, as well as a writing assignment and an oral presentation. Our students will be getting both a Science and Language Arts grade for this project. I'm offering my Animal Research Report poster as a FREEBIE on TpT! Here's a sneak peek: You can grab it here. Animal Research Report Poster If you're looking for everything needed to do this Animal Diorama project with your class, take a peek at my Animal Diorama and Research Report Project Pack! It's got everything you'll need in one convenient spot! Last year, I struggled to find examples of dioramas online to show my students, so I've included detailed photo samples of my own students' projects, as well as a step-by-step presentation for your students. Here's a preview of all of the goodies included in this project pack! In addition to the Animal Research Report Poster and step by step presentation for your students (which can be projected onto your Smartboard or other type of computer projector), I've also included a student-friendly rubric with grading expectations for all aspects of this project, as well as a grading rubric for teachers to use when giving final grades for this project, student instruction sheet, writing template for research report, and a presentation outline to help guide students on what to focus on for their oral presentation. It's everything I struggled to put together last year for this project in one convenient place!
Playing games makes Math even more fun! Head over to the blog to snag a bunch of FREEBIES!
